‘Star-Crossed': Matt Lanter Previews The CW’s ‘Raw’ New Sci-Fi Series

Part love story, part social commentary, ‘Star-Crossed’ is unlike anything you’ve ever seen — minus, of course, the perfectly constructed cast of familiar faces.

Something pretty cool is landing on The CW tonight. The network — already running rampant with vampires, werewolves, and even angels — will add aliens to its supernatural roster with the Feb. 17 series premiere of Star-Crossed. But it’s more than just an alien show; it’s romantic, it’s intelligent, and as star Matt Lantertells HollywoodLife.com, it’s unfortunately “raw and real.”

‘Star-Crossed’ Politics: A Story Of Integration & Acceptance

Among all these other things, Star-Crossed is about racial segregation, about treating others equally,” he explains, drawing parallels to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. “And the sad part is that it’s basically a true story. This really happened to people in our country, and it’s still happening all around the world.”

Star-Crossed takes place in the year 2024, as a group of teenage Atrians — easily the hottest race of aliens this side of the Milky Way — are integrated into a human high school, as part of an “experiment.” Naturally, there are quite a few variables the organizers never took into account, like what might happen if one of the aliens and one of the humans fall in love. Matt’s Roman finds himself in such a situation with Emery (Aimee Teegarden), whose father just so happens to be a major player in the alien-human relations game.

‘Star-Crossed’ Romance: Are Roman & Emery Destined Or Doomed?

“We’re going to see it build,” Matt says of Roman’s relationship with Emery. “There are going to be major ups and downs. This love that they feel for each other, it’s a destiny-type feeling, but it’s almost impossible because of what’s going to happen around them.”

Basically, in the middle of this epic story of acceptance and disorder, Roman and Emery get to play out their own version of Romeo & Juliet– the sexy alien version.

“They’re both outcasts within their own worlds, and that’s kind of what Romeo and Juliet were,” Matt says. “They were both ready to leave their own families for the sake of love. They have each other, and in a lot of ways, they have nothing else.”

‘Star-Crossed’ Mythology: Meet The Atrians

Roman’s feelings for Emery will provide shelter from the (social) storm, while simultaneously stirring up trouble in my other favorite aspect of the show: the Atrian culture! Roman’s fellow Atrians — including The Secret Life of the American Teenager‘s Greg Finleyas Drake — will often fail to understand where he’s coming from, resulting in what Matt calls “a struggle between doing what’s right for his people, versus staying true to his own feelings.”

In the first two episodes alone, The CW drama introduces viewers to the rich, complicated culture of the Atrians, including beautiful customs, internal power struggles — and even its own language, forged by the same person responsible for Game of Thrones‘ Dothraki-speak!

“That’s a whole other area to lose yourself in, the mythology of the Atrian culture,” Matt notes. “People are going to have to stick with [Star-Crossed] for a few episodes to grasp everything that’s going on. In fact, as it goes on, I think it just keeps getting better.”

(I second that!)

HollywoodLifers, don’t miss the series premiere of Star-Crossed, Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. on The CW!

Hello,
I follow your sight. I see you have interviewed Matt Lanter. The show he was most recently on Star-Crossed was cancelled. Fans of the show, and him are campaigning to try to bring back the show. We currently have a spaghetti campaign that had a goal to raise $500.00 , and was met within a day. We want to buy spaghetti in bulk to send to the network for attention. The spaghetti symbolizes an episode from the show. We also have made and sold star-crossed cancer awareness t-shirts worldwide with profits being donated towards cancer research. Please consider checking out the star-gazers Facebook page and consider writing an article about are cause. Thank you!